Author
Topic: Kitchenaid Microwave Crazy Display (Read 2092 times)

Model Number: KCMS1555RSS2
, the customer had this unit for about 8 months and noticed the display would intermittently show random characters (maybe Klingon) and then go dead a few moments later. If it was unplugged for a few minuets, it would work again just fine. I started by running the unit with a water load and using my microlight tool (those are the red lights in the video), and verified that it functioned and heated just fine. After several minuets, I was able to verify the display problem (couldn't get it to do it twice so it's not on the video) and then had the unit go dead on me. Having seen this before, I took my microwave detector in hand and started the unit again only to find microwave energy was leaking from behind the control panel at an alarming rate. My detector will beep at 5mW/cm2 which is the maximum allowable by the FDA and both times it jumped to an overload state so I knew something wasn't good. After removing the wrapper I found the magnetron was mounted correctly to the waveguide, but it looks as if it had been bent enough that the two did not seal completely. This damage (probably from being dropped) was enough to allow microwave energy to escape from the waveguide and cause logic problems with the control board. Some of this energy also reflected back to the magnetron itself causing it to overheat, tripping the thermal overload and shutting the unit off. Due to the damage, this unit cannot be fixed because it needs a part that is non-serviceable, so I disabled it to prevent further use. Not to give people reasons to panic, but if you experience an intermittent problem with your microwave, especially a strange display, you might want to get it looked at.